Curricular Changes in Secondary Education of Békés County in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

In Hungary, as everywhere in the world, public education has been greatly influenced by changes in education policy. The study examines the aspirations of contemporary education policies in the twenty years following the Treaty of Trianon by exploring
the secondary education of a region, namely Békés County, focussing on curricular modifications in secondary schools.
In addition to descriptive sections, a theoretical-analytical method is also applied to discuss the topic. With the help of the comparative methodology, not only local schools are compared to one another, but a nationwide outlook appears to some
extent, too.
As early as the 1920s, educators realized that differences in learning outcomes among children evolved not only due to their different abilities, but social impacts also played a role, inter alia, in their lagging behind. Therefore, owing to the existing
social difficulties, they welcomed the teaching freedom allowed by the Curriculum and Instructions, as it pointed to the possibility of differentiation that is so important even nowadays.
Based on the overview of the methodological guidelines, the debates over the curriculum and the critical controversies promoting progress, it can be stated that the county’s education has many values that can be firmly relied on in today’s educational matters as well.